But, teh E-3zorZ, oh NoEs!
For my part, I’m happy E3 is going the way of the Dodo. I just don’t share the affinity many in the gaming press – and, indeed, in game development – hold for the yearly raucous shitfeast. I’m sorry if you don’t get out of the studio and interact with people more than once a year, I really am. I’m also sorry if having your picture taken with strippers dressed as humanoid foxes or Lara Croft is the highlight of your year romance-wise. Please understand, though, that E3 is the embodiment of everything that is wrong with the game industry. That it is being castrated is a good thing for intelligent, adult gamers and those who want to make intelligent, grown-up games. This image of the gamer as greasy fetish geek wallowing in his fetid basement has got to go. You know, if our industry is to have a future.
Imagine a world where the ‘E3 pressure cooker’ is no longer sucking up precious development time and burning out our best and brightest. Imagine a world where the public face of our industry isn’t trashy hookers, cosplay, and an assault to all senses. Imagine a world where there’s no delineation between ‘gamers’ and ‘non-gamers’. I mean, people who watch TV don’t call themselves ‘TVers’, do they? And imagine a world where the most violent, misogynistic shoot fest sits side by site on the content-ranked ‘Itunes of games’ with beautiful, experimental experiences that are hugely profitable because they serve a powerful niche.
E3 is basically the embodiment of the Old Game Industry in the sense that it’s puerile, dripping with saggy strippers, and completely focused on what a certain luminary calls “The Reptilian Brain.” Out with the old, I say. Make way for the new game industry.
4 Comments
Preach on brother… whilist E3 was fun, it offered no real value for me and just affirmed the “gamer” stereotype that is still often thrown around.
i whole-heartedly agree. i’ve never been big on the buzz of e3. when i first got to the school, i wanted to go really badly just to see what all the fuss was about and to find out what new, fun stuff was happening in the gaming developer community. turns out there’s a whole seperate place to go for that (GDC, just in case you’re stoned right now). what the hell is e3 for?
e3 is for pulling developers away from actually finishing their projects and fixing the bugs and forcing them to rush some kind of half-assed demo out so that they can satiate the appetites of the “geeky-gamer” stereotype and start the hype train. that’s why a lot of games have failed on such a monumental level. you’ve built up the hype for a game 6 months to a year before its release only to have this very promising concept get fucked up because it ended up being rushed towards the end. spend less time cranking out e3 demos and more time making sure you actually have a worthwhile product (doom 3 anyone?).
i have a feeling this will also be good for what i like to call the “duplicity complex” where every game is either a sequel or an offshoot because those are the only games that sell. if i have to see another call of duty or another dead or alive or another resident evil (the list could go on and on, my friends), my little gaming brain is going to explode. stop regurgitating and repackaging the same messes and give me something substantial that makes me think or makes me question or takes a concept to a new level. give me portal. give me spore. give me something new. e3 is a marketing and business orgy and that’s not what we need. we need more collaborative thinking efforts like GDC. we need industry-wide “game jams”, if you will.
based on the advertising for Sin Episodes: Emergence, there’s a sadly generalized view of gamers out there that’s only propogated by e3. i hope this new game industry gets rid of that and opens the door for something that’s actually new and not just the same old crap in new clothing(/packaging). there’s plenty of non-greasy guys out there and even girls who want something that stimulates their adrenal glands as well as their intellect. bring on the new game industry. bring it on, please.
yeah what zoolander said.
BRING IT ON!
(please)
Well I can’t say anymore than what has already been said by Swink and Zoolander
I am GLAD that E3 is gone. I went thee in 2005 and it was cool for only one day. Never again will I have to fight horny geeks for a tee shirt to raffle off at a developers meeting at school. GDC rules E3 Drools. I have had a more enjoyable time learning a lot at GDC every year I go. I want to rather see more of new unique ideas for games than a new booth babe at the Namco booth, (Freaking Namco Girls, they suck). Anyway well put guys.